Salvador dali
"l'inquisition"
from "les songes drôlatiques de pantagruel" (the drolatic dreams of pantagruel)
from the rarest edition of 50 …
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Salvador dali
"l'inquisition"
from "les songes drôlatiques de pantagruel" (the drolatic dreams of pantagruel)
from the rarest edition of 50 only
original lithograph on japan paper
year: 1973
76 x 56 cm
hand-signed
hand-numbered 8/50
catalogue raisonné:
r.michler and l. W. Löpsinger
"salvador dali, catalogue raisonné of prints ii - lithographs and wood engravings 1956-1980" pages 155 - ref. 1419
with certificate
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history of this artwork
sometime in the 1960s, spanish surrealist artist salvador dali, already considered one of the leading artists worldwide, discovered a special book published in paris in 1565 by richard breton, as the 'last work' of the writer françois rabelais, and named it after his bestseller about the giant pantagruel. This book, "les songes drôlatiques de pantagruel", i.e. The drolatic dreams of pantagruel (where 'drolatic' means funny and amusing), consists of 120 woodcuts, each page showing a completely different figure: strange, hybrid creatures, combinations of man and animal, insect, plant and object, pot-bellied or hunchbacked, with special noses, snouts, trunks or beaks; each having a title in the end of the book.
enraptured and inspired by the new discovery, he chose 25 images and devised variations on these then four-century-old prints. These images have been printed as original lithographs at atelier grapholith in paris, and published by carpentier in geneve in 1973.
this very artwork is meant to represent l'inquisition (the inquisition).
here the original text in french (an english translation follows):
ce monstre affreux, à tête d'oiseau de proie, aux mamelles pendantes, vêtu d'un sac noué sur sa tête et au bas des reins, est encore un portrait de l'inquisition. Les trois oiseaux de paradis, perchés sur un juchoir planté sur son dos, signifient que c'est sur elle que la haute hiérarchie, figurée par ces oiseaux, se repose pour l'exécution de ses sanglants arrêts. Les oies qui viennent sucer ses mamelles, et le predicateur, en forme d'oiseau enfroqué ou de moinegout monté sur la poulaine du pied de l'inquisition, figurent clairement ces imbéciles, qui, imbus de principes fanatiques, viennent sucer son lait, et prôner sa funeste doctrine dans la société.
this hideous monster, with the head of a bird of prey, hanging breasts, dressed in a sack tied on its head and on its lower back, is yet another portrait of the inquisition. The three birds of paradise, perched on a roost planted on its back, signify that it is on it that the high hierarchy, represented by these birds, relies for the execution of its bloody judgments. The geese that come to suck its breasts, and the preacher, in the form of a frilly bird or a monk mounted on the foal of the inquisition's foot, clearly represent these imbeciles, who, imbued with fanatical principles, come to suck its milk and to preach its fatal doctrine in society.
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sold with certificate of authenticity, copy of the catalogue raisonné, and copy of the original woodcut and which inspired dali (we have it in our collection) this piece has an attribution mark,
i am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
issues arising from misattribution
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